Please log in

Register now for free

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

A valid e-mail address. All e-mails from the system will be sent to this address. The e-mail address is not made public and will only be used if you wish to receive a new password or wish to receive certain news or notifications by e-mail.

One of the largest private higher education colleges in the UK has had its licence to sponsor international students suspended by the Home Office.

The British Institute of Technology and E-commerce, which has partnerships with a number of universities, disappeared from the list of licensed institutions earlier this month.

According to the principal, James MacAskill, the suspension is down to a “misunderstanding” by the Home Office over the “exit arrangements” the institute had in place with previous partners. “We anticipate an early resolution to this particular issue,” he said.

The BITE is currently ending validation partnerships with the University of East London and the University of Wales, which was in effect shut down in 2011 after a series of scandals surrounding its validation activities. Dr MacAskill did not confirm whether these were the partnerships that had been the focus of the Home Office’s concerns.

In September last year, the BITE signed a new partnership with Staffordshire University to validate a range of largely business-related BA and master’s-level programmes. There are currently 336 students taking such courses.

The QAA report says that it had enrolled about 2,500 extra students in the autumn of 2013 after being allowed to access student loans for higher national certificate and diploma courses. It was one of 23 private colleges that had this funding suspended in November 2013.

According to Peter Robinson, the institute’s academic registrar, about 20 per cent of its students are “affected” by its visa licence status, although according to a Home Office spokesman, existing international students will not be affected by the suspension and can continue to study at the BITE.

Reader's comments (1)

The QAA report confirms that BITE is a college with 3,662 studying on higher-level programmes of whom 2,500 were additional registrations in the autumn term.
The good news is that the QAA has "confidence that the Institute is fulfilling its responsibilities for managing and enhancing the quality of the intended learning opportunities it provides for students".
They should go furher - the College had an intake of 2500 students, but when the QAA visted in 2013 the College had 987 students. To make such a huge jump, and the QAA have no concerns, the management of the College must be truly oustanding.